All information requested in the CDP Climate Change Questionnaire can be reused in a GRI G4-based report, on the condition that the climate change related Aspects[1] (Energy, Emissions, Products and Services, Public Policy) have been identified as material. Material means that the topic is relevant for the company while has impacts on the stakeholder that the company tries to manage.

Under GRI Guidelines, there are two types of information that can be reported: General Disclosures, giving information about the overall economic, social and environmental background, and Specific Disclosures, under which organizations report on the topics/aspects considered material.

In this sense, G4 General Disclosures have a broader meaning than the CDP corresponding questions, and can then be reused in the CDP questionnaire and adapted to the context of climate change, while the other way around is trickier, as CDP questions are only linked to climate change.

In the linkage document, GRI and CDP explain the importance of aligning on international recognized standards and to merge them whenever possible. We at DFGE also support this approach through our Sustainability Intelligence Model. Indeed, documents can be reused to answer different requests, which can be time-saving for companies. It is important to answer through recognized standards as they are usually multi-stakeholder and independent, assuring a representation of all parties in an objective and unbiased way. Moreover, standards are a tool to compare the performances of various companies and to identify best practices.

How to answer CDP or GRI

CDP and GRI are sustainability reporting frameworks, meaning that companies need to implement some actions before being able to report anything. DFGE can help you define and implement your actions. Also, DFGE can support you through the CDP process via assessing your carbon footprint, answering the questionnaire or performing a response check. In addition, DFGE can define the report contents according to GRI. Please feel free to contact us for more information at info@dfge.de

The 2016 World Economic Forum annual meeting took place in Davos, Switzerland, from the 20th to the 23rd of January and gathered decision-makers from all over the world. It enables to raise awareness among the most influential people of the world: indeed, it provides an opportunity to gain momentum and concretize current projects like the Paris Agreement from COP21 or the Sustainable Development Goals.

A new era: the fourth revolution

One of the key focus was the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a concept developed by Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, stating that this revolution is characterized by new technologies fusing the physical, digital and biological world. Technology can thus be a way to address current challenges.

Current challenges are deeply intertwined with sustainability agendas

Food security. By 2050, the world must feed 9 billion people.

Inclusive growth. Our current social, political and economic systems are exacerbating inequalities, rather than reducing them, which can lead to anger and xenophobic attitude

International Labor Organization estimates that more than 61 million jobs have been lost since the start of the global economic crisis in 2008.

Climate change. 2015 was the Earth’s warmest year in recorded history.

Gender equality. The gender gap has reduced, however some efforts still need to be done, including in remuneration.

The number of inhabits is rise to 9.7 billion in 2050 with 2 billion aged over 60.

200 million SMEs don’t have access to formal financial services.

Focus in long-term projects will be beneficial.

How can your company contribute?

Any organization can contribute to address these global challenges, especially

Climate change. Organizations can assess their carbon footprint to identify the sources of emissions, set reduction targets accordingly, and implement actions to reduce them like switching to energy-efficient equipment, fostering car-sharing and public transportation among employees, among others

Gender equality. To tackle gender equality, companies can issue non-discrimination rules, raise awareness among the decision-makers, and provide the same compensation and benefits on the basis of past experiences and skills, or implement a whistle-blowing system to report such cases and deal with them

Inclusive growth/employment. Companies play a key role in employing people. A solution for inclusive growth can be to implement shared value initiatives by launching a new product meeting social needs, or redefining productivity the value chain while focusing on the social and environmental constrains in the supply chain, or create a local competitive cluster

Healthcare. Companies can help foster employees’ health and well-being by focusing on ergonomics in the workplace, preventing stress, preventing occupational diseases.

If you are an organization aiming at improving sustainability and planning to participate in sustainability reporting, or looking for support when calculating your carbon footprint – contact us to learn more about our services via info@dfge.de

The DFGE– Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy provides consulting and auditing services to realize a Green Vision integrated in corporate business processes. Strategic advice on topics like technology, energy and emissions is expanded to business related and socio-economic aspects. Services range from consultancy in developing and managing customized analysis for testified Carbon footprint to validation of analysis methods and results for sustainable accuracy. As independent Institute DFGE’s work is based on advanced scientific and research methods and institutionalized standards. More at http://www.dfge.de

THE UNFCCC 21th Conference of Parties (COP21) was held in Paris from the 30th of November to the 12th of December, 2015. The 195 countries represented here reached an historical agreement to curb climate change.

The Paris agreement at a glance:

Objective to keep temperature rise below 2°C and try to limit it to 1.5°C

Five-year cycle of actions. 186 countries have published their action plans to reduce emissions.

Review mechanism every five years, with a first world review in 2023. This will help increase the transparency, countries will be required to report on their emissions.

Focus on climate change adaptation instead of mitigation, which means “adjusting systems in response to climate change, with changes in processes, practices, and structures to moderate potential damages or to benefit from opportunities associated with climate change,”(UNFCCC) while mitigation is about reducing GHG emissions.

Finance and burden-sharing. Developed countries are to provide financial resources to help resources countries, up to 100 billion dollars from 2020.

Loss and damage principle. The agreement acknowledges the Warsaw International Mechanism (WIM) on Loss and Damage, created in 2013 to deal with the cases when mitigation and adaptation fail.

What is next?

The agreement will be open to signature on next Earth day, the 22nd of April, 2016. To be enforced, at least 55 countries must ratify it, and they must represent at least 55% of the world’s emissions.

What can you do?

Every organization can take part in mitigating climate change and reducing emissions! A first step is to assess the carbon footprint to then reduce the identified emissions by implementing many simple actions at local level.

An increasing number of companies tend to purchase or even generate green power. Today the focus is mainly on green electricity out of renewable sources or considered as low-carbon or “carbon free” electricity. Despite some clear physical basic conditions it is fact that there are market instruments and technologies out there. These instruments should make a clear difference – it should not only be a calculation trick but should generate a real shift towards a greener power supply infrastructure. This can also be understood as additionality: (according to the IPCC/CDM §43) “an activity is additional if anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases by sources are reduced below those that would have occurred in the absence of the activity” compared to a business-as-usual scenario.

Preventing explicit double counting of emission attributes through use of certificate registries and tracking systems

Preventing implicit double counting of emission attributes through adjustment of other calculation sources and mechanisms used in scope 2 accounting

Identifying best practices for treatment of “null power” where certificates have been sold from generation

Overlapping Power Sector Policies

Surveying regional approaches to accounting for renewable energy purchasing within an emissions- capped power sector

Additionality and Eligibility

Identifying the range of reporting program and consumers expectations about the full environmental and market impacts of renewable energy purchasing mechanisms and their ability to drive new renewable development

The final publication is scheduled for fall 2014. DFGE is also part of the WRI/GHG stakeholder group.

CDP

The CDP reporting is also adressing this topic with the recent 2014 CDP climate change reporting guidelines. Companies are able to report on “Purchased and consumed low carbon electricity, heat, steam or cooling” based on the following assumptions:

“Purchased and consumed low carbon electricity, heat, steam or cooling (MWh)” should be used to disclose the amounts of electricity (and heat, steam or cooling) that was accounted at a zero emission factor (0 tCO2e/MWh) or that can be considered “low carbon” and that are supported by appropriate tracking instruments. This means that any portion of electricity (and heat, steam or cooling) that comes from renewable/low carbon sources and is incorporated into a distribution grid average/residual mix, and that is not backed by some kind of instrument retired by the company, or by someone on their behalf should not be counted.

Source: CDP climate change reporting guidance 2014, page 128

What is considered as “low carbon” for CDP?

“Unfortunately there is no precise, generally accepted definition of what “low carbon energy” is. No definition is found also in the GHG Protocol standards or ISO. Nevertheless, it can be reasonably established that “low carbon energy” will be any type of energy that will have no direct emissions and which the indirect emissions can usually be considered as negligible considering the life cycle of the given technology. It is generally accepted as such power technologies like wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and most hydro power. Nuclear power is also usually considered low carbon, although other considerations make it a more contentious technology. Natural gas, combined cycle gas turbine and Combined Heat and Power (cogeneration), despite being less carbon intensive than other means of electricity production like coal, are not considered here in the definition of low carbon.”

Source: CDP climate change reporting guidance 2014, page 129

What is considered as Appropriate tracking instrument?

“Tracking instruments can have different names depending on the specific system they originate from. They can be designated as a “certificate”, “tags”, an “instrument”, “credits”, a “guarantee of origin”, etc. For the purpose of this guidance we will use “instruments” as the overarching concept for all these different designations. When accounting for renewable energy based on tracking instruments, companies should be made aware of what constitutes a good system for tracking electricity. From a CDP perspective, there are 4 simple criteria that need to be fulfilled: There is an entity responsible for the instruments generation (issuing body) that issues the instrument in a publicly available registry(ies) against renewable energy delivered by a generator. Only one instrument is issued per unit of energy (e.g. MWh) and this link is properly audited. A set of attributes are present in the instrument (or can be legitimately inferred from it) namely: name of producer; technology type; year of installation; year of production; state support/aid; emission rate; other environmental characteristics. Properties should not be disaggregated e.g. it is not allowed for one party to count for the GHG emission factor and another party to count for the fact that it is renewable in origin. There is an auditable chain of custody, that is, all information can be verified/audited by users in the system and the whole system is audited by external parties, guaranteeing that the link between generation, distribution and final consumption is effectively established and that there is no double counting. The information in the system can be used to avoid the double counting of attributes. CDP will generally consider the following systems (and instruments) as appropriate for the purpose of tracking renewable electricity: Systems based on European Guarantees of Origin (GOs) such as the EECS (European Energy Certificate System). Systems based on USA Renewable Energy Certificates such as the Green-e Energy program in the USA. In addition to the issuance, tracking of properties and guarantee of the chain of custody, there can be certification schemes that will testify for the appropriate use of an instrument for a given purpose. Further discussion of these issues as well as specific terminology can be found in the technical note “Accounting of Scope 2 emissions”, available at https://www.cdp.net/en-US/Pages/guidance.aspx.&#8221;

Source: CDP climate change reporting guidance 2014, page 97

To consider these tracking instruments is also crucial for any activities within “carbon neutral” or “carbon zero” certifications.

UK Defra

Especially in the UK there is a clear methodology which is also favored by the DFGE. Be clear on your physical emissions but consider what has been achieved to make a real difference. To ensure a transparent and valid calculation of the carbon footprint/emissions a gross/net approach can be uses.

The gross figure for emissions show the real physical emissions based on average factors. The net emissions take into account that you have a low-carbon emission factor, consider a renewable energy source (generating own electricity) or even feed-in to the grid through various technologies.

More details on the gross/net or the gross/gross approach of the UK DEFRA can be found here.